TRI-CITY BOARD MEMBER’S RESIDENCY CHALLENGED

A Superior Court judge will hear arguments today in a lawsuit filed by a former Tri-City Healthcare District member aimed at removing his successor from the board because he doesn’t live in the district.

Wayne Lingenfelter, a former health care executive, lives in an apartment in the neighboring Palomar Health district. He is arguing that his permanent residence is a home he and his wife purchased in Oceanside in late 2010.

Former board member George Coulter, who lost by 2,000 votes to Lingenfelter, filed the court challenge in December.

As he was preparing to run for the Tri-City board, Lingenfelter registered to vote in August at the Oceanside address. Although the house is leased out — and Lingenfelter has never lived there — he signed under penalty of perjury that it was his home address.

Lingenfelter said he and his wife purchased the home with the intent of it being their retirement home, and that he will move in Feb. 26.

“I am very disappointed that he brought the suit, but I am prepared to answer it,” Lingenfelter said Thursday. “I feel we have a good chance of winning, but you never know what the judge is going to say.”

Coulter’s attorney, Steven D’Braunstein, said he believed the case was clear cut.

“It’s absolutely ridiculous wordplay,” D’Braunstein said. “I think (his attorney) will concede that Mr. Lingenfelter has never lived at the residence, never once slept there, but for more than a year, he slept almost every night at a residence in Vista outside of district. That is beyond dispute.”

State law is clear that a candidate or officeholder must be a registered voter and resident of the district. Definitions of residency or domiciles under the law can vary by situation. The hearing is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. in Judge Sim von Kalinowski’s courtroom.